Vehicles such as trucks, vans and sport utility vehicles have rear cargo areas that are accessed by the user. For example, the user may need to lower the tailgate of a pick-up truck and climb onto the bed of the truck in order to remove boxes or other items transported therein. Although lowered, the tailgate of the truck may be located at a height that cannot be easily reached from the ground. In this instance, the user must grab onto a portion of the bed in order to aid in climbing on top of the tailgate. Further, the tailgate is at a height that requires one to jump down from the tailgate instead of stepping down. As such, stepping onto and off of the bed of the pick-up truck can be a daunting task. This task is rendered especially difficult when one's hands are fully loaded with items being removed or placed onto the bed of the pick-up truck. Stepping devices have been proposed to allow one to more easily access areas of a vehicle such as the bed of a pick-up truck.
Many of today's vehicles include a trailer hitch receiver that is located at the rear end of the vehicle. The trailer hitch receiver is typically a two inch by two inch receptacle into which a corresponding hitch of a trailer is received. A pin can be disposed through the hitch and receiver in order to effect attachment. The trailer could alternatively be attached to a tow ball which in turn is attached to the trailer hitch receiver. Prior devices have been proposed that utilize the trailer hitch of a vehicle in attaching a vehicle step for aiding a user in accessing the rear of the vehicle. One such vehicle step includes a linearly extending portion that has a multiplicity of holes defined along its length. The linearly extending portion can be attached to the trailer hitch receiver. A foldable step onto which a user may step to aid in accessing the back or top of the vehicle is attached to one end of the linearly extending portion. A user can slide the linearly extending portion along its length to a desired position at which time the pin can be disposed therethrough to lock the device in place so that the step is desirably located. One problem with such a device resides in the length of the linearly extending portion. The trailer hitch receiver may only be of a limited depth. In this instance, the device cannot be placed in a retracted position but must instead remain at all times extended.
Other stepping devices have been proposed that allow for the step to be completely retracted even when the trailer hitch receiver has a limited depth. One such device includes a bracket that is received within and extends below the trailer hitch receiver. The linearly extending portion is positioned along the part of the bracket that is below the trailer hitch receiver. This portion of the bracket does not have a limited depth, and the linearly extending portion can be placed in a fully retracted position so that the step is in turn able to be completely retracted. With such a configuration, portions of the stepping device are held below the trailer hitch receiver and consequently are closer to the ground. This situation may be undesirable in that the stepping device is more prone to scraping the ground and being damaged. Stepping devices of the aforementioned type must also be removed from the trailer hitch receiver and then reattached every time the step is extended and retracted. Further, if one needs to attach a tow ball to the trailer hitch receiver for purposes of towing a vehicle or trailer, the stepping device must be removed and stored. As such, there remains room for variation and improvement within the art.